- “Volunteer Stories: Bea (Feb 2017)”. Refugee Support, Feb.
2017,www.refugeesupport.eu/volunteer-stories/volunteer-stories-
bea-feb-2017/. Accessed 26 March 2017.
The author of this source is a volunteer at the Refugee Support center and it is his retelling of how two immigrants emotionally touched him. The author is not credible in the sense that he is using only his first name, but the content of his story speaks for itself. Bea’s clam is that through meeting two refugees, Ahmed and Farres, that he has a better appreciation for life, even though his overall interactions with them were very minimal. The primary audience would be individuals looking to get involved and looking to see how others have helped or been affected by those being helped. A secondary audience would be donators looking to see how the organization is doing and how the volunteers are contributing.
A bias of this site is that it is all told from a limited point of view of the author. He knows very little about the individuals that he has assisted and can only tell a story from that limited information. The author is also of Syrian decent, so he would tend to write about the individuals in a positive light. A weakness is rooted in the bias that was just stated, only a little information is given. A strength is that this story is exactly what I would want the text and the experience to be formatted for the AWE workers. This greatly supports my project giving me an idea of how to tell the AWE workers stories from their point of view and how to not only focus on just questions but the experiences of them. This is highly relevant to my project.
- “Refugee Stories: Life threatening sea journeys”. Stories,
UNHCR,www.stories.unhcr.org/. Accessed 26 March 2017.
There is no singular author for this source, instead it is a collective of various stories told by refugees compiled on the site. The site itself, UNHCR is a highly known and very well regarded United Nations affiliate tasked with the protection and betterment of refugee and asylee status individuals. The page that I am using as the source for this site does not make any direct claims or state a thesis, instead it uses the power of stories and videos of refugees and their struggles to demonstrate the higher need for more assistance for them, in the United States and all around the world. The authors intended audience would be those who are looking to become affiliated with and help in assisting the UNHCR. A secondary audience would be those individuals who are not necessarily getting involved but want to know what kind of lives a refugee lived/has lived to one day get involved.
A potential bias that could be seen in the article can be that It tells the stories of refugees around the world and from different time frames. There are current stories, but some go back as far as the 1940’s. Since there are stories from all around the world and are refugees and asylee’s combined, there is a lot of varying and mixed information. The weakness that I can see is that there is no direct source. There are loads of stories but they are from many different authors. A strength is the design, this is close to how I wanted the page for AWE to look and the kind of idea I was thinking about. Also, the stories themselves are very strong and emotional and gives me an idea of what I would do. This helps supports the project I am doing. It gives me a very nice and detailed design of how to format the page and how to draft the stories of the AWE volunteers. This material is highly relevant for the project because of its format, design, and presentation.
- “Stories”. Exploring the issues, U.S Committee for Refugees and
Immigrants, www.refugees.org/explore-the-issues/stories/#5740
Accessed 26 March 2017.
For this source there is no singular author, more so it is a collection of refugee, immigrants, and staff testimonials. This source is an organization that is from Washington D.C, they focus heavily on the international and domestic assistance for refugees and immigrants who need to be resettled. The sole thesis stated at the top of the page is in regards to the stories of the refuges and how they have went from a negative to a positive. The intended audience would be those individuals who are looking to get away and escape from their current situations. This page alone tells the dramatic stories of those who fled and how much better their lives have become. A secondary audience would be any individual looking to get more involved with this organization.
There really is no bias in the article besides the fact that all the stories are lives that have gone from worse to better. Not every refugee or immigrants lives would become better and the site does not include any negative stories. A weakness, as can be expected for any stories page, is that there is multiple authors of the stories and they do not all come from one source. Each story is different and unique, making it hard to set an expectation or standard. This greatly supports my project, as I have a better idea of questions to ask the AWE volunteers about their experiences with the AWE seekers and how their lives have changed for the better. Also, the formatting and the use of thumbnail videos help as well in the overall idea of the design for the page. The stories themselves make this article critical for my project as it gives me a wide variety of questions to ask the volunteers and how to phrase them.